Unbroken Promises
by ArtikGato
Summary: Discontinued until further notice. Sorry! Chihiro is heartbroken after her parents die in a car crash, and seeks out the shrine that took her to the world of the gods before...


**Unbroken Promises**

**By ArtikGato**

Disclaimer: I _wish_ I was Hayao Miyazaki!! He has loads of money, but, more importantly, he is so _talented_!! Don't we ALL wish we were Hayao Miyazaki?! Even if we don't want to be and old Japanese guy...(well I wouldn't mind the Japanese part...)

Author's Notes: I saw the English dub DVD of _Spirited Away_ not four days ago, and I haven't been able to keep my mind off of it since!! (which is bad 'cause I have huge history exams coming up next week!! Starting tomorrow! Ack! Pray for me everyone!) So I decided to write a Spirited Away fic. I didn't know when or what. Unfortunately, I should be studying for exams right now...but I'm a writer first and a student second!! (most of the time...) This first chapter is INCREDIBLY angsty, which is VERY unlike me. (my fiction tends to be humor or romance or both...), but I PROMISE there will be romance in the next chapter and, knowing me, humor too. Oh, one more thing. REVIEW!! Comments, compliments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism welcome! Flames will be used to power the ALLMIGHTY BLOWTORCH OF DOOM!!! -ahem-

**Unbroken Promises**

**Part One:**

Flashing lights.

The wail of sirens.

The pitter patter of rain as it hit the pavement. 

The bitter, biting cold.

These were the sensations that Chihiro woke up to.

_What happened?_ she wondered, trying to sit up.

_Where am I?_

Tires screeched, and a swarm of men surrounded her.

"Miss! Miss, are you all right? Can you hear me?" asked one.

"This is severe," said another.

"Looks like she's dead," said one.

"Him too. This is terrible..."

_What's going on?!_

"Miss?!" the first man tried again. She finally nodded her head.

"She's alive. Get her out of here now! Move it!" he replied, and she suddenly felt herself being lifted. She was carried over by two men to...an ambulence. Then it hit her.

+++_Flashback_+++

_"Honey, don't you think you've had too much to drink to be driving this late?" _

_"Naw...I'm fine! Our house is jus' down the road anyway!" _

_"I'm serious! I'll call a cab, you just sit down, and-"_

_"NO!! I SAID I'm DRIVING!! Now back off!! Where are the damn keys?!" _

_"In your pocket..."_

_"I knew that!"_

_"Please reconsider honey..."_

_"Persistent thing, aren'tcha?"_

_"Can I at least walk home with Chihiro?"_

_"You get in the car right now!!"_

_Her parents had gotten into another argument, and her father had stormed out of the house a few hours before this took place. Chihiro and her mother found him stone drunk at this bar a few blocks from their house. _

_On the way home, Chihiro's father had sped into an intersection and hit another car dead on. She was lucky that she had survived. _

+++end of flashback+++

Chihiro sat in a daze near the ambulence, a raincoat from one of the firemen at the accident draped over her. She was crying like there was no tomorrow. She had already proven to the ambulence staff that she was completely fine, her only injuries being a slight bump on her head and a few scrapes and cuts. She was extremely lucky. Her parents, however, were not. 

         Both of her parents had died, almost instantly according to the police at the scene. Nearly every bone in her father's body was broken, and the same with her mother. One person in the other car was dead, and the rest badly injured. Chihiro felt so bad for them...the person that had died in the other car was a small child, not looking older than two. 

         Chihiro continued to cry, heartbroken. She had not felt sorrow like this for a long time...since she had left the world of the spirits so long ago, and Haku had not followed through with his promise that he would come to see her. Eight long years had passed since her adventures in the spirit world, and she had seen nor heard no trace of him since. She cried harder. Now her family was gone, and old, painful memories were resurfacing. She was an absolute mess of tears when one of the firemen finally came for her, and helped her into the ambulence. She caught a glimpse of two bodybags being loaded into another ambulence before she the doors of the ambulence closed. She found herself in the back of the small ambulence sitting across from two people; a man and a woman. The woman had her face in her hands and was sobbing, and the man was comforting her. Chihiro decided to speak up.

         "I am so sorry about this," she said. The man turned and glared at her, and prepared to say something, undoubtedly something mean. The woman lifted her head and stopped him.

         "No dear. There is no need for you to get angry. It wasn't her fault," she said. The man shook his head.

         "You're right. It wasn't her fault," he said, and turned to Chihiro.  
         "I am sorry about the loss of your parents, as well," he said. She nodded, solemnly.

         With both of her parents dead, Chihiro would have to live with a relative, or if she had none, go to a foster home. She did have a relative--her Aunt--but the bad news was that her aunt lived in California...in America. Chihiro realised this on the way to the hospital.

         "I'll have to move to California," she said out loud. The man and the woman looked at her. Her eyes watered in realization.

_But I can't leave __Japan__!! I've lived here all of my life! _

_"Chihiro!" _called a voice from her memories. She shook her head.__

_And I still haven't finished High School! _

_"Chihiro!" _called the voice again. She burst into tears.__

_And....and..._ _the door to the Spirit World is here. If I move, Haku will never find me..._ She drew her knees up to her chest and continued to cry. 

         "Umm...girl?" the man asked.

         "What was your name? Chihiro?" the woman asked. Chihiro looked up in suprise.

         "Did you say that you have to move to California?" the man asked.

         "Yes, both of my parents are dead, and I don't have any other family in Japan," she said.

         "We were thinking that you could stay with us...at least until you finish High School. But there isn't anything we can do if you have family somewhere else. I'm sorry," the woman replied. 

         "Thank-you anyway," Chihiro said, and stared at the floor. 

         _What will I do? Will I just give up and move off to __California__? I have to stay here, but what choice do I have?_ A sudden thought struck her. She had lived in the Spirit World once before, maybe she could go there..._permanently_.

         A nurse walked around a wall coming into a waiting room. She had the clipboard up to her face. "Miss Chihiro! I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the only family we could trace you to was a woman in California...." the nurse started, but trailed off when she noticed that the brown-haired girl she had left in the waiting room ten minutes ago wasn't there. "Miss Chihiro?" the nurse asked. 

**Review if you liked it, please! Just to let you know, I have a habit of reading and _reviewing_ the stories of people that review my stories...**


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